First Responders Reunited With Premature Twins They Helped Deliver

BOSTON (CBS)- One year after Pat Picher and Corey Silva rushed to the aid of a West Bridgewater woman in labor, they reunited with the little boys they’ll remember forever.

“The call came as a woman in labor, so the heart starts pumping,” recalled Picher. “Then the police came on and said ‘yeah actually it’s twins.’”

Meredith Anderson brought those twins to the West Bridgewater Fire Station to visit the day after their first birthday. Last year, Craig and Cody Anderson were born two and a half months early, to the surprise of their whole family.

“I had pain that day, but I was pregnant with twins so pain is a relative term,” said Anderson. “I was in the hospital the week before, but they said ‘don’t worry. You’re not going to deliver for at least another six weeks!’”

Alone at home, Anderson delivered baby Craig before Picher and Silva arrived. When they got there, the team sent Craig outdoors in the arms of another first responder and readied Meredith to deliver Cody. Minutes later, Cody was born but he wasn’t breathing.

“I was going to do everything I could to make sure he was OK,” said Picher.

By that point, more first responders arrived from East Bridgewater. The men scooped up Cody and climbed in the back of an ambulance while police officer Tim Nixon hopped up front to drive. On the ride to the hospital, crews cleared Cody’s airway so he could breathe.

The boys spent three months in a neo-natal intensive care unit, and then several more months gaining strength at home. The twins now have a clean bill of health but are playing catch-up developmentally. Doctors expect them to be on-track within a year.

“It’s incredible seeing how far they’ve come,” said Anderson. “To get the help we needed, when we needed it, is such a blessing. There were so many miracles at work that day.”

Picher and Silva hadn’t seen Craig and Cody since they were born. During their reunion this weekend, the guys showed the boys two stickers on the side of the West Bridgewater ambulance: a stork for each and the date the vehicle became a baby carriage.

“It’s one of those things. Some paramedics never get to deliver a baby and we got to do two in one day,” said Silva.